A Moment of Weakness
by Abarai Starsha
Summary: In the midst of war she asks one question.  One question that could change everything.


**AN: ****You have no idea how hard it was to stop here. Hell, how hard it was to start here. I feel there is an epic story to tell with just this one scene… I was determined to write a one shot with this couple and I FINALLY did it! (As I look at the other files on my computer that were supposed to be one-shots..)****  
**

**Dedicated to Star Princess, Denidene and Shadow Pain because they've been following my stories :)  
**

**I do not own Bleach. If I did, well... Let's just say my main bad guy would NOT turn into a butterfly. Enough said.**

**

* * *

**

A Moment of Weakness

By: Abarai Starsha

She held his hand and looked into his teal eyes as sounds of war raged over and around their heads. Endless screams of hollows of all ranks surrounded the pair of shinigami while they remained safe and undetected inside a barrier. She had just finished patching him back together as he lay among the rubble of the torn city of Karakura.

"I am so tired of the endless fighting, the endless loss. One by one we're being defeated," she said softly as she wiped the blood from her eye, "I-I can't do this anymore. We'll rise up, we'll win and then what? There will always be someone else, something else that will want to wage war again and again and again."

He was silent as he watched her. Her pale skin bloodied and bruised. She was tired. They have been fighting non-stop for years on end ever since Aizen killed Kurosaki and the other humans. It was at that point he sensed something snap. She fought harder, smarter. She endured being captured, tortured and still she fought on. When he brought Aizen down they thought there would finally be peace. It didn't take long for the new Hollow King to take over where Aizen left off. Three Kings later, they were still fighting.

Fatigue was getting to them all. Toshiro completely missed a tiny hollow with a long tail and was impaled. As he fell to the ground, Rukia caught him and erected the barrier while she healed him.

"What are you saying?"

"Come with me," she pleaded with her eyes, "Come with me and we'll run. We'll find somewhere away from all of this. We can find peace, together." She took his hand and brought it up to her face.

He looked into those stunning violet eyes of hers and knew she was offering him eternity with her. He imagined the new life; a place safe from hollows, shinigami and humans, far from war, death, and destruction. He could imagine such a place, a place where they could finally be together in every sense of the word.

But it was a dream. Like all dreams, they eventually end.

She let herself get her hopes up as she searched his eyes. She knew he was just as tired and fed up as she was. She knew they both had strong feelings for each other. Was it enough?

"Rukia…"

"Toshiro, please, I will never ask anything from you again. We can finally be together... "

"What about everything our friends died for? Kurosaki, Ishida, Abarai, Matsumoto…Momo…"

"Do you really think they would be happy knowing we shared the same fate?" She said as she turned away and let his hand go.

Toshiro instantly missed the warmth. He sat up and took her hand in his but she did not turn back. "They fought to protect what was important to them, just as we continue to…"

"_You_ are important to me, Toshiro,_ you_!" She said fiercely. She spun around then. He wished she hadn't. Her eyes were filling, she was struggling, fighting to keep her tears in check and she was losing. "What am I supposed to do? Keep fighting until I lose you too?" She took her hand back and went to another pile of rubble.

Toshiro sighed and stood up. He examined the now closed up wound Rukia healed, next to the one she healed the previous day, and the one last week…He sighed again. This war was getting old. He knew she was right and what she offered…God what she offered… he wanted nothing more than to be with her; to love her as she needed him to love her and be loved by her as much as he needed and wanted her to.

He was still Captain of the tenth division. What was left of it. He was still a Captain of the Gotei 13, or rather the Gotei 5 at this point. Seireitei was falling. He looked at her again. She sat on the ground; the frame of what was left of a school desk surrounded her like a cage. Her face was buried in her drawn up knees. She was quietly sobbing.

"Rukia, I…"

"Don't. Don't tell me no," she whispered between sobs.

"We promised them we would win this, Rukia. We buried them and we promised them." Toshiro jammed his hand through his hair. He wanted to, God knew he wanted nothing more than to take what she was offering. "I can't, Rukia."

Rukia was silent. She lifted her head and wiped her eyes. Her emotionless mask went back on as she stood. She pulled out Sode no Shirayuki and looked over at Toshiro with eyes cold and unfeeling.

"Then whenever you are ready, Captain."

Toshiro closed his eyes. "Love has no place on a battlefield."

"Are you going to lecture me on things I already know or are we going to bring down some more hollows?" she said coldly. "I am tired and I had a moment of weakness. Trust me, it won't happen again." He knew she had closed the door to her heart and it would take him a long time before he would be able to open it.

"Don't get careless,"

"I'm not the one who needed healing," she said as she lowered the barrier.

He looked over just in time to see her disappear with a flash step.

* * *

**AN: The more I re-read this, the more I really want to write more on how it got to this point and what happens after. My OCD is killing me...**

**Please review if you liked it, heck, review if you didn't…**


End file.
